Colorado residents of an area where a Cold War-era uranium mill contaminated soil and groundwater are expanding their legal case against state regulators, accusing them of failing to hold Cotter Corp. accountable.

The lawsuit filed in Denver District Court alleges that recent dismantling activity at Cotter’s Cañon City mill is being done without a required plan, presenting a public-health risk as toxic and radioactive waste is dumped into a waste-storage pond.

“We have frequent high winds here. I always worry,” said Cañon City resident Sharyn Cunningham, leader of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. “We’d like an opportunity to weigh in.”

The 34-page complaint filed Friday expands a previous lawsuit accusing Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment regulators of failing to require sufficient bond money to protect taxpayers — in case Cotter walks away from the cleanup. It claims that state officials calculated $43 million is necessary to complete the work but required Cotter to provide only $20 million.

The lawsuit also contends a plume of toxic groundwater contamination from the mill property — identified in 2008 — is flowing unchecked toward the heart of Cañon City and the Arkansas River.

Cotter president Amory Quinn said the lawsuit “doesn’t have anything to do with us” and confirmed that Cotter is dismantling old structures.

He said Cotter hopes to move forward with plans to re-engineer and reopen the mill. The health department’s recent approval of a permit for another company to build a uranium mill in southwestern Colorado should have no effect on Cotter’s plans, Quinn said.

“We have done millions of dollars’ worth of remedial work in the past few years, and we are going to continue until it is complete,” he said.

A subsidiary of San Diego-based defense contractor General Atomics, Cotter has clashed with state health and mining regulators over this and other uranium-related sites across Colorado.

Cotter began operating the mill south of Cañon City in 1958. Liquid waste containing radioactive material and heavy metals was discharged into 11 unlined tailings ponds from 1958 to 1978. Those ponds were replaced in 1982 with two lined impoundments. After well tests in the Lincoln Park neighborhood showed contamination, the mill site in 1984 was placed on a national list for Superfund cleanups.

“We’re hoping that the new CDPHE head and the Hickenlooper administration will look at this with new eyes and really move this forward,” said Travis Stills, managing attorney for the Energy Minerals Law Center, one of two watchdog groups pressing residents’ legal case.

The attorneys have heard from state health department officials “that they have concerns about Cotter’s litigiousness,” Western Mining Action Project attorney Jeff Parsons said. “If a company is able to succeed and back an agency down with those threats, the result is you never get a cleanup. That’s where we are. Local citizens will have to stand up and go to court and force the state to require a cleanup.

“The state is allowing Cotter to game the system and not only forestall meaningful cleanup but also leave the state taxpayers on the hook,” he said.

The health department has been given primary oversight responsibility for the cleanup under an agreement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA “remains actively engaged at Cotter, and our goal is to work with the state to ensure cleanup of the site,” agency spokesman Matthew Allen said. “Our most recent discussions with the state have focused on improving coordination and communication.”

Bruce Finley covers environment issues, the land air and water struggles shaping Colorado and the West. Finley grew up in Colorado, graduated from Stanford, then earned masters degrees in international relations as a Fulbright scholar in Britain and in journalism at Northwestern. He is also a lawyer and previously handled international news with on-site reporting in 40 countries.

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